[comp.sys.mac.misc] Archiving programs

roskill@cs.umass.edu (10/11/90)

Hello netters,

I need an archiving package that has/does the following:

1. Incremental backups (i.e., I can backup only the files that have
changed over the last week, etc.)

2. Allows deleting of files from an archive.  I know, it sounds stupid,
but I have two hard drives (one 80 and one 160 meg) and need to delete 
the files from the archive once they have been ruled useless.

3. A nice user interface.  This is for my mom, and she doesn't want
or need to know how the thing works, just that it does work.

I have looked and used Retrospect, but it doesn't delete files from
an archive.  Can anyone out there tell me about a package that fufills
these requirements or any portion of them???

In desparation,

|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| Damian Roskill                  |   "Straight outta Amherst!   |
| Specular International, Inc.    |    The Makers of Infini-D!   |
| Roskill@cs.umass.edu            |   Raytracing for the Mac II  |
| My opinions are my own...       |                              |
|----------------------------------------------------------------|

ml27192@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (10/11/90)

DiskFit.

Maybe.

If by incremental then you mean that older versions _must_ be accessible,
then no. But if you just don't want to back the whole thing up over
again, any program should do it.

DiskFit again.

DiskFit keeps track of what it's backed up, so it deletes old stuff. A typical
backup will mean inserting disk 1, then a few disks in the rest of the set.

It has the best interface in the world, and best reliability also. Once I
sat down to try to get the program to lose data and failed. I think it's great.
For one thing, it doesn't store a directory on disk 1, it just starts there. So
if you lose it you don't need to scan all the disks to find out whats backed up,
just rename disk 2 as 1 and tell it that 2 is missing. It'll take care of it.
It can detect failing floppies before anything else. Once it told me that      
errors were occurring, so I just used another, then afterwards, formatted it
(the 'bad' one) in the Finder. No problem. Then I ran Verify on it. No 
problem. Ran it in DiskFit again, go rejected. Formatted again, and behold,
Finder decides that, yes, it's bad. By now a lesser program would have stored
my backup on it.

It is simple but elegant. No programming, except allowing you to leave out
folders named [xxxxxxx]. And it doesn't leave enough space for a desktop file,
so never backup under MultiFinder or it might fill up a floppy too soon. But
I've never been dissatisfied with it. And it saves a listing of files and which
disk they're on in the system folder, so if you delete something and want it
back, or want an old version and haven't backed up, just look for it in the
list. I feel perfectly secure with it, it's fast, very easy to use, and makes
backups (and restores) almost painless.